In the United States and Canada many formations contain very viscous oils. These oils are often removed via thermal enhanced oil recovery methods. Formation fines and particles are often entrained in the viscous oil. Because the oils are viscous, conventional gravel pack techniques can not be used to effectively remove the fines when the viscous oil is produced. Utilization of conventional gravel packs would greatly impede the flow of the viscous oils therethrough and would result in a loss of production. For this reason, these viscous oils are produced to the surface with the fines entrained therein. Once on the surface, the fines are removed from the oil and discarded.
Disposal of these fines may present an environmental problem. Several ways have been devised to utilize these fines. One way in which the fines have been utilized is for road building. To accomplish this, the fines are deposited on the roadbed. Since these fines may contain a significant amount of oil, pollution of the environment is a concern.
Therefore, what is needed is a method for disposing of fines obtained from very viscous oil which disposal will minimize environmental damage.